National franchise SWRL Cinnamon Roll Factory is coming to the Spring-Klein area, owner Arian Tucker confirmed.

The details: The business is scheduled to open in late October and will be located at 16000 Stuebner Airline Rd in Spring. According to its Instagram page, the business offers:

• Handcrafted cinnamon rolls

• Artisan ice cream

• Coffee

• Banana pudding

Three pumpkin patches are open for visitors to check out in the Spring-Klein area:

• Old Christmas Tree Farm Pumpkin Patch features a variety of pumpkins, a train ride around a 75-acre farm, carnival food and photo opportunities. It runs through Oct. 31 with a $10 entry fee.
• City Place Fall Festival & Pumpkin Patch is hosted by KDA Markets on Oct. 24 from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free, and the event features a vendor market, photo opportunities and face painting.
• Rosehill Pumpkin Patch runs through Nov. 14. It features pumpkins, family games, activities and live music on Saturdays. Admission is free Monday through Thursday, and $5 for ages 13 and older Friday through Sunday.

The nonprofit Houston Parks Board is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, HPB President and CEO Justin Schultz said.

The history: Founded in 1976, the group works to expand, improve and protect parks and green space in the Houston region by building, renovating and managing projects. Over the past 50 years, the board has invested about $500 million in parks and green space using public, philanthropic and corporate funding.

Also of note: The parks board typically works on about 50 projects at any given time, including more than 170 miles of connected trails. Moving forward, Schultz said the board has three main priorities:

• Adding 50 miles of trail to the existing network

• Investing in about 180 of Houston's neighborhood parks

• Building the Hill at Sims and MacGregor parks

Several trending stories emerged from the northern portion of the Greater Houston area between Sept. 25-Oct. 1:

• Power Electronics breaks ground on 53-acre manufacturing campus in Houston area

• TxDOT proposes $209M widening for portion of Grand Parkway

• Maintaining Lake Houston: Dredging and Maintenance District looks to provide long-term solution

• Klein Farmers Market to hold grand opening in Spring-Klein area

• Walmart debuts modernized store, expanded offerings in Porter

• Midnight Cravingz announces grand opening, specials

• Tomball and Magnolia businesses work against rising costs

• Conroe Icehouse opening soon

Texas school districts using the state-developed Bluebonnet Learning curriculum saw slightly better year-over-year achievement last school year than other districts, according to Texas Education Agency data released Sept. 30.

What's happening: During the 2025-26 school year, 619 of Texas' 1,200 public school districts opted in to implement at least one of the three Bluebonnet curriculum programs—elementary math, secondary math and elementary language arts.

On this spring's State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exam, districts using the state-developed math materials saw student improvement that was 0.6 percentage points higher than students in other districts, while districts that implemented the reading materials performed 0.2 percentage points higher on the STAAR than other schools.

What they're saying: The TEA said the gains in student achievement are an "encouraging sign of early progress."

Zeph Capo, president of the Texas American Federation of Teachers, a statewide educator union, disagreed, calling the results "rather paltry."

"It may take a few more years to determine if this is a valid trend or simply an anomaly," Capo said in a statement.